Depending on the team you are in and the projects that you work on, you can end up working with some very smart people

Cons

There is very little effort put in to retaining talented staff. Constant cutting and non replacement of staff puts a lot of extra load on remaining colleagues. This place is not a meritocracy any more.

Advice to ManagementAdvice

Look after your staff better. Toxic cultures are very hard to fix once they have taken hold.

A lot of the people have been helpful and approachable plus the benefits schemes are pretty good.

Cons

A lot of processes, which are already mature in other companies are barely there and it can take a very long time to get things done.There are quite a few employees in senior positions, who can't deal with day to day tasks and lack basic knowledge in their area of expertise.

Advice to ManagementAdvice

Cut out the massive layer of junior directors - a lot of them don't have any reports and their job could be done but much more junior colleagues.

Friendly, intelligent people (depending on your team)Decent internship and graduate training programmeWork/life balance reasonable/better than other places (at least in sales)Brand name still good to have on the CV

Cons

- Low morale on trading floors due to constant cuts and voluntary departures.- Lack of communication from upper mgmt and no clear strategic direction- Grads have no chance to try placements on different desks and are dropped onto a team that needs headcount with very little regard to his or her professional interests. It is not easy to move teams. If you are a markets intern at Barclays, be very careful which desks you are courting and find out how things are really going for them.- Compliance and internal approval processes for anything and everything have become far more stringent and time consuming than they are at other banks (from what I've heard). Not a bad thing per se, but it makes the work very tedious.